COVID-19 Viewpoints

Telehealth is going to play a critical role in the delivery of care in the coming weeks and months as health care providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the CDC and other public health agencies continue to recommend social distancing and self-quarantine after exposure, telehealth is a vital tool for getting both sick and healthy individuals access to health care services they need if in-person services are not necessary. The use of telehealth services should help alleviate the ever-growing pressures on health care systems as they respond to the outbreak.  In light of these benefits, the Emergency Appropriations Bill passed by Congress last week includes provisions that allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to lift certain restrictions that are currently required for Medicare  reimbursement of telehealth services. 

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress and President Trump have taken the following actions:

This advisory from the Mintz Government Law Practice outlines the details of Governor Baker’s March 15, 2020 executive orders aimed at reducing exposure to COVID-19.

This article reviews guidance issued Friday, March 13, 2020 by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance to help public companies manage their upcoming annual meeting processes in light of COVID-19.

Read about the federal government’s response to COVID-19, including $8B in emergency funding and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act pending in the House.

As part of the Commonwealth’s extensive response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Governor Charlie Baker has temporarily suspended certain requirements of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law in hopes of reducing the public’s risk of exposure at public meetings. This alert reviews the details of the Governor’s Executive Order, which takes steps to preserve the public’s rights to participate in meetings held by public bodies.

This article provides details about the coronavirus-related UK travel ban, which includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Baker Administration continues to monitor the COVID-19 public health crisis, expanding almost daily on restrictions for schools, restaurants and several other places of business across the Commonwealth.  As these updates are constantly evolving, this post is meant to provide the most up to date announcements.

Read about what the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 is a pandemic means for force majeure provisions in contracts.

With cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) emerging in nearly every state, many businesses are taking swift action in an effort to curb its spread.  Teleworking, “remote working,” or simply “working from home,” is a centerpiece of those efforts. While remote working arrangements may be effective to slow the community spread of COVID-19 from person to person, they present cybersecurity challenges that can be different than on-premise work. 

Ellen Janos discusses the role telemedicine is expected to play in the management of the coronavirus outbreak as well as the Emergency Appropriations Bill passed Congress which contains provisions intended to loosen the restrictions on Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services.

In our recent blog posts, we discussed the impact coronavirus / COVID-19 is having on the workforce, and what employers should or should not be doing in response to the outbreak.  On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization’s (“WHO”) declared the coronavirus outbreak is a “pandemic.”

This article provides details on the travel ban announced by President Trump on March 11, 2020 in his speech regarding the coronavirus.

As the nation continues to address the spread of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”), several precautionary efforts are being taken to ensure citizens remain safe and reduce the prevalence of transmission to vulnerable individuals across the country.  As the Legislature and Executive Branch aggressively focus on COVID-19 related issues, your ML Strategies team will continue to monitor and engage state and local leaders on legislative and regulatory priorities by keeping lines of communication open on a daily basis with legislators and staff.

The CDC and other governmental agencies have been critical in guiding employers with recommended protocols for the physical health and safety of employees and other individuals in our workplaces. While an employee’s physical well-being is important, employers should not overlook the mental health issues impacting employees in connection with their response to the coronavirus pandemic in the workplace.

One of the most pressing questions presented by the COVID-19 coronavirus is how companies can balance employees’ health and wellbeing (including both virus-related symptoms and associated anxieties) with the business’s operating needs. Although not a cure-all, the implementation of teleworking (i.e. remote working) is one way that certain equipped companies can keep their employees (and those they interact with) safe, without significantly impacting business operations. In this post, we highlight the benefits of teleworking, where possible, and suggest best practices for employers looking to institute temporary teleworking arrangements.

Following years of discussion, on March 5, 2020, U.S. Representatives Larry Buchson (R-IN) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) and U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced identical versions of the Verifying Accurate and Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act in both chambers of Congress. The bipartisan legislation closely tracks existing medical device laws, with some notable exceptions, discussed below and in a prior post. If enacted, many regulatory elements familiar to in vitro diagnostic (IVD) and other medical device manufacturers would be applied to clinical laboratories that develop their own tests, commonly known as laboratory developed tests (LDTs). The bill also includes elements that are priorities for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a program conceptually similar to pre-certification, third-party review, and Collaborative Communities. Unlike previously-circulated discussion drafts, the introduced bills include specific language designed to address public health emergencies, including COVID-19.

On March 12, 2020, the IRS issued notice 2020-15, providing that a health plan will not fail to be a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) merely because it provides testing for and treatment of COVID-19 without a deductible or subject to a reduced deductible. Therefore, an individual who participates in such a plan may continue to participate in a Health Savings Account (HSA).

This alert reviews USCIS’s requirements for Form I-9 — required for all new hires in the United States — and the special challenges that completing the form poses in light of the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19.

With the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”), the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (“SARS-CoV-2”), companies across various industries are taking precautions, some of which already have, and inevitably will result in nonperformance of their contracts.